There were lots of positive vibes down at the ABT CUPRA garage after the inaugural Tokyo E-Prix. The team got their first championship points on the table thanks to their driver Nico Mueller, and promoted them up into ninth in the Teams’ World Championship after Round 5.
Mueller, who has been with the team since the start of GEN3 in Season 9, managed to get through to the qualifying Duels for a second consecutive race. From there he navigated the challenging 18-turn, 2.582km street circuit to come home in seventh.
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It’s both his and the team’s first points of the year, and will be a welcomed achievement following a tricky start to the season. The Swiss had a best finish of 13th until his visit to Japan last week, and was forced to retire the race prior in São Paulo. For the other side of the garage, Season 3 champion Lucas di Grassi has had two non finishes this season and a highest-placed result of 13th too – unlucky for some.
“Finally some points on the board,” Mueller said after the first-ever Tokyo E-Prix. “That was a bit of a relief and very happy for the whole team. We had a good car all day long on a single lap.”
The ABT CUPRA driver who has 37 race entries to his name in Formula E, made it through into the Duels of qualifying for a second consecutive race and started in seventh.
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“The car was competitive, we made it into the Duels, then had a clean race trying to stay out of trouble, keeping the nose clean. We were unlucky at the beginning. I think we actually had potential to even do a little bit better because I lost a couple of places in the traffic jams in the first lap which was a bit annoying.
“Sometimes your race gets a different dynamic when you stay with those front runners, the whole ATTACK MODE sequences and stuff that looks a bit different, so might have been even a little bit better but generally happy – sixth is a great result.”
Mueller’s result was changed post-race and saw him finish seventh, after a penalty was overturned for Andretti’s Norman Nato. The Frenchman was then classified in sixth, moving Mueller into seventh.
“[The circuit was] very different to what we've had so far this season,” Mueller added about the street circuit. “Always up for new challenges and enjoyed that. Very technical and pretty spectacular to watch from the outside when I saw some pictures. It looks pretty cool. I hope everybody enjoyed it. It was great to race in Japan for the first time. Super cool to share it with the enthusiastic fans, so hopefully soon again.”
Next up, Formula E returns to Italy with another new venue: Misano.
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“I’m looking forward to Misano as a place I know well from the past, even though our track will look a bit different! Again, expecting a very different challenge to Tokyo. Maybe we won’t only have to manage energy there, but maybe temperatures as well again so hopefully we can build on our experiences from São Paulo and have a good one.”